The invention relates to a metal recovery process from a heavy product obtained by a hydroconversion process.
Metal recovery processes are frequently part of hydroconversion processes due to the expensive metals used as catalysts. A complete description of the hydroconversion process that feeds the metal recovery process described here as the invention, is disclosed in co-pending and commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/691,205.
As part of the metal recovery process, a solid separation process is used for extracting fine particles of the stream that comes from the hydroconversion process, one example of such a process is disclosed in a commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,732,664, wherein solids particles are separated from the unconverted residue by agglomeration and later precipitation, which diminishes combustion or thermal oxidation unit size, making the recovery process less expensive.
With respect to catalyst and other metal recovery, the need remains for effective methods to recover such metals efficiently and without creating other undesirable by-products.